America's Talking - Republican Governors Rally to Support Texas, Gov. Abbott in Border Fight With Biden Administration

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

Support continues to pour in for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from fellow Republican governors who have sent their National Guard troops to Texas. They are also participating in an Emergency Management Assistance Compact with Texas, sending personnel to assist in Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. In the face of ongoing threats by the Biden administration to strip Texas of what Abbott says is its constitutional right to defend itself, the governors have vowed to “stand with Texas.” Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Vice President of News and Content at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief, Casey Harper. How are you, Casey? Doing good, Dan. How are you? Doing good, Casey, but kind of a crazy week, but they all seem to be crazy. The standoff between the state of Texas and the Biden administration over the border crisis

just boiled over this week. The U.S. Supreme Court started the week by siding with the Biden administration in its attempt to prevent Governor Abbott and Texas National Guard troops, Department of Public Safety Troopers from erecting a border wire fence in Eagle Pass, Texas, near the border, near the Rio Grande River. some interpreted as saying that Texas can no longer put up the border wire fence, but all really the Supreme Court ruling did was say that the federal government had a right to tear down that wire.

So Governor Abbott doubled down, had his troops start building more and more and more wire. The Biden administration said, hey, you can't do that, you're going to take it down. A number of governors across the state or across the United States, United States, Republican governors have rallied to defend what Governor Abbott's doing. It really looks like it's heading to these bigger trouble, Casey. Why don't you weigh in here? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot going on here. I think there is, as you said, some initial confusion about what the Supreme Court case really says.

There is, you know, said in addition to the confusion, there's a long history on this issue. Anyone who, you know, flips on the TV or turns on this podcast and says, hey, it's just some barbed wire. What's the big deal? well, there's a lot going into this, and this has really become symbolic of years and years of battle over border policy and the implications it has on states like Texas. And then in addition to that, there is a growing coalition of states, which is kind of a new thing on this issue. For a long time, border states have lamented the border illegal immigration, but it has gone from being just a border state issue, just a few of the most conservative governor's issue, to really a nationwide coalition of opposition, in particular against the Biden administration and the way they've handled the border crisis. So why is that a few quick facts here? There have been about 10 million illegal immigrants who have come across the border since Biden took office, Dan. I know we've talked about this. Yeah, we've talked about this number a lot, but that's more than the population of about 40 U.S. states. So this is not a small number. It's big. That would be more than New York City than any of the largest cities in America. So it's a huge number of people. If you've seen the videos at the border, this is not just, you know, women and children and sick old grandmalls dragging themselves across the border, you know, to find a hospital. I mean, this is a lot of military age men, as some have called it. And, uh, as some even pointed out in a letter that we're going to discuss here in a moment.

But these are young men and they seem like they're not all just desperate, you know, young women and children. Now, that doesn't set aside the, you know, problem there is with children being trafficked across the border. There's the fentanyl coming across, which is very poisonous. There is the human trafficking element. And so it's all just kind of balled up into this battle between these border states, in particular led by Abbott, versus Biden. They've been going back and forth. Abbott has been busing migrants to sanctuary cities, which has really been upsetting these Democrat mayors, and they've been complaining to Biden, which is a very big development. It's no longer partisan. We have Democratic mayors who are

raising concerns about immigration to the White House. And then there's just this belief, Dan, before I hand it back to you, that for whatever the Biden administration says, they don't actually want to close the border. They say they do. They blame Republicans, but they don't actually want to. And this wire issue has really given a very vivid picture of what Republicans believe on this, which is, if you really want to close the border, why are you taking down the concertina wire? If it's really, you really want to close the border, then what's wrong with us helping you? And if you don't want us to help you, it might show that you don't actually want to close the border yourself. The Biden administration would say the wire fencing doesn't belong there, at least not erected by Texas, state of Texas. people because it's a federal issue and the state is preventing the federal government from doing its

job. But Abbott would say, well, that's exactly the point. You're not doing your job federal government, Biden administration. That's why we're putting up the border fencing. You mentioned more than 10 million people have crossed the border illegally since Biden took office. Texas is bearing the brunt of that. They by far have the widest, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, longest southern border with Mexico. Let's reference the young military-aged men who are crossing in this letter that you referenced. Last night, we broke a story at thecentersquare.com that 10 retired FBI executives and other national security experts sent a letter to Congress raising huge concerns about what's going on at the border, calling it perilous for America,

and noting that these military-aged men who are coming from the border, many of them as gotaways, which is the term the federal government uses, to call those who illegally enter between ports of entry, go unapprehended, make their way into the country, and then disappear into the United States somewhere, that they're coming from not just, you know, Mexico or Latin American companies. They're coming from China, from Russia to America's sworn enemies. And they've raised, in this letter to Congress, they raised serious concerns that a terrorist attack could be imminent. Yeah, and this is not just a couple of, you know, Trump administration FBI officials.

These are top FBI officials across seven presidential administrations. So I think that's important to know this is not just. just, you know, a couple of Trump guys trying to stir up trouble for Biden. This is seven presidential administrations. And you reference the terror attacks. We know, Dan, from the terror watch list and from the FBI data, or the federal data, rather, that we have people on the terror watch list coming into the country all the time who are apprehended.

And we have no idea how many coming to the country, how many of those gotaways were on the terror watch list or connected to people on the terror watch list. Because we've apprehended hundreds of people who were on the list of. of known or suspected terrorist or terror connections. And so this isn't a hypothetical. I think that's important to point out. We're not fearmongering. We're not say, and hey, some of these people could be terrorists.

We actually know that some of them, many of them, hundreds of them were on the terror watch list. And that doesn't count the ones that got away that were never processed, which, of course, we have no idea of knowing who they were, what their intentions are, how long they're staying, and maybe even what they brought into the country with them. Right. And now, as we said, the Republican governors are rallying to defend Abbott and his board of security efforts, known as Operation Lone Star. South Dakota Governor Christy Noem is visiting Texas today. Again, we're recording this on Friday, January 26th. She's visiting Texas to stand in solitary. Solidarity.

Solidarity. Thank you, Casey, for picking me up there. Solidarity with Texas there. And I mean, who knows where this is, who knows where this is headed? Just the way the Biden's holding firm on its stand, Governor Texas is holding firm on his stance. And then all these 25 Republican governors from around the country are standing with Abbott. I mean, is there going to be some sort of a potential standoff, whether it be legally or I just don't know. It's heading the dangerous territory. Right. I agree. I know we're running out of time here.

when I, you know, Abbott, the governor of Texas, posted this open letter. And when you read this letter, it reads as if he is preparing the moral framework, the legal framework, the philosophical framework for secession. And I know that that's almost a something that people laugh off. And, you know, there's been jokes about Texas seceding for years and years. But, and it still is, I think, unlikely to happen. I want to be clear on that. But whether he is actually planning. to do it or whether he is just trying to put that idea in the minds of his supporters. Abbott is throwing out things that clearly read and sound like secession. He's citing the founding fathers and talking about how the federal government has broken its compact with the

states and how, you know, and we even have, you know, conservative voices online calling for the men of Texas to rise up and defend their state. And so I think we are, you know, the border Border crisis has been happening for a long time. States have been upset about it for a long time, but we have crossed some kind of line. And we're in some kind of new uncharted territory. It does feel more perilous than, I agree. And it's all happening and maybe to Trump's benefit in an election year when Trump is the immigration candidate and a immigration year standoff. And I think politically it will benefit him. And I think this is the last thing the Biden administration wants to be talking about and wants us to be talking about right now.

Casey, we could go on and on, but as you referenced, we are out of time. Listeners can keep up with all of the developing stories on the border crisis at the center square.com. I'm sure Casey and I will be talking about this regularly in the coming weeks and months on America in Focus. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKalib. Please subscribe. Thank you for listening. Enjoying our podcast, your reviews help other listeners find our show. Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.